The 2018-vintage S.B.S. Model SBS-7017 FIAT G.50 Freccia ‘Regia Aeronautica’ kit is the first of a series of 1/72 scale G.50 kits along with the SBS-7018 ‘Finish Air Force’, SBS-7019 G.50bis ‘Regia Aeronautica’, SBS-7020 G.50bis ‘German & Croatian Air Force’ kits featuring common resin, white metal & etched brass parts with different water decals, SBS-7018 featuring different 12.7mm machine gun & mount castings. Featuring detail rich well casted resin parts the S.B.S. kits are the best available of the G.50 in 1/72 scale though large upper fuselage-wing root & engine mount gaps necessitated considerable puttying & sanding work. The fuselage to engine cowling machine gun trough mount part for my build came up short on the fuselage side though the unpainted assembled S.B.S. model shows a perfect fit, highly disconcerting given I’d painted & glued together engine parts & cowling in place onto the fuselage beforehand! At over U.S. $45 the kit is expensive so chose to build only SBS-7017 in 150 Squadriglia colors & markings with Humbrol, Model Master & Testors enamels with Polyscale acrylics for weathering.

The resin kit is slightly smaller than a Boeing B-17, challenge to build as well. The one-piece main wing castings absolutely must be securely attached to the fuselage, lathering them up with cyanoacrylate glue just isn't going to cut it, must fabricate attachments for them, still studying how so. Am not going to super-detail the fuselage interior, cost involved obtaining passenger seats et. al. associated parts not worth it never mind lotta time involved in getting them well as fabricating others. I'm going to build G.12T M.M.60673 "606-2" in FIAT factory-applied Schema C1A Mimetico good multi-view color photos of which readily available via the Internet. This is going to be a "slow build" though nevertheless want to get it done by month's end so can get to the Xotic cum Aviation-USK FIAT RS.14 floatplane itself just if not more of a "bear" to build.

G.12T wings deep enough to allow a couple holes to be drilled for rods to be run from one wing through the fuselage into the other wing? That would certainly strengthen the join as well as spread the load.

G.12T wings deep enough to allow a couple holes to be drilled for rods to be run from one wing through the fuselage into the other wing? That would certainly strengthen the join as well as spread the load.

Yes they're plenty deep. Fuselage rod run-throughs is likely what I'll do though don't have large enough drill bits. I'd like to get by with two 1/4-inch rods, ask old neighbor friends if I could use their drills & bits for the job, will report on this later.

G.12T wings deep enough to allow a couple holes to be drilled for rods to be run from one wing through the fuselage into the other wing? That would certainly strengthen the join as well as spread the load.

Yes they're plenty deep. Fuselage rod run-throughs is likely what I'll do though don't have large enough drill bits. I'd like to get by with two 1/4-inch rods, ask old neighbor friends if I could use their drills & bits for the job, will report on this later.

FIAT well as Savoia-Marchetti painted fuselage interiors a Grigio (gray) shade, don't have readily available info regarding G.50T MM.60673 interior color so defaulted to VM. Regia Aeronautica Italiana (RAI) aircraft interior colors is a research specialty onto itself for RAI aficionados, paint availability more than anything determining how aircraft were factory painted well as at Servizia Riparazioni Aeromonili e Motori (SRAeM) depots. Reggiane in particular painted interiors of their 2000-series fighter/bombers a green similar to FS 34227, Humbrol 120 Matt Light Green coming closest, dutifully I'd painted the interiors of my models that color but not all, after using up the tin reverted to Humbrol 78, color difference between the two not enough to warrant buying another.

Two days spent cutting & gluing in fuselage window parts, masking them for spray painting over; kit provided ones mostly too small. new ones cut & fitted, much time spent. Major kit cockpit parts sprayed & glued in place, detail painting them et. al. tomorrow, may glue fuselage halves tomorrow if can complete the work during A.M. This isn't going to be a five-star build by any means, if it comes out competently built will be thrilled.